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  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Why does the Joker surrender at the end, even though killing Sarah meant there was nobody stopping him from doing whatever he wanted to the babies? Did Sarah's Heroic Sacrifice touch even his heart? Did he figure her dying was enough to push Gordon and Batman over the Despair Event Horizon? Maybe he just used up his last bullet on her?
  • Anticlimax Boss:
    • Depending on how you view the ending, or if you were waiting for Joker's big move to either happen earlier or be larger in scope and body-count, the ending, chilling though it is, can come off thusly.
    • If you were looking for a grand rematch between Batman and Bane, sorry. Their meeting is fairly civil — but, somewhat paradoxically, still manages to be awesome.
  • Archive Panic: Saying the story is big is an understatement. The story comprises every major Batman comic released in 1999, which is already just over one hundred issues. Then you add in the tie in issues in Azrael, Catwoman, Nightwing, and Robin and a few tie-in one-shots and specials. Then there are the stories directly leading into it, "Cataclysm", "Aftershocks", and "Road to No Man's Land." And lastly there come the arcs before that, "Contagion" and "Legacy", which kickstarted the whole thing. Altogether, that's over 150 comics. The four new edition trade paperbacks DC released through 2011 and 2012, reprinting the main story alone, are over 500 pages each.
  • Ass Pull: Superman suddenly deciding that he should stay out of the whole thing because apparently he thinks that there’s nothing he can do. Leaving aside that it’s incredibly out-of-character for Superman to give up on anyone who needs rescuing, let alone leaving A WHOLE FREAKING CITY to suffer in ruin and devastation, there’s also the fact that with his powers, he could easily save a lot of people or evacuate a lot of people who want out of Gotham, yet decides to give up and leaves the whole thing to Batman and his allies. Yet somehow, even Batman doesn’t bother stopping him from leaving or telling him what he can do to help, despite the fact as one of the smartest superheroes on earth, Batman could probably think of a dozen ways for Superman to help him save Gotham. The whole thing reeks of Deus Exit Machina and feels really contrived because it sounds like the writers were so desperate to keep any Superheroes apart from Batman and his allies out of Gotham that they just decided to have both Batman and Superman grab the Idiot Ball and boot Superman out of the story with half-assed excuses and flimsy justifications. Granted, this is Superman we’re talking about here, but still...
  • Complete Monster: The Joker is determined to destroy what little order the desolated Gotham City has. He abducts several police officers and disguises them as himself, resulting in many being killed by their comrades, mistaking them for the Joker. He then takes an entire hospital ward of newborn infants hostage, planning to kill them all to destroy the city's spirit. When Commissioner Gordon's second wife, Sarah Essen, tries to stop him, he fatally shoots her in the head.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Plenty of ordinary citizens and non-costumed criminals from the Archive Panic storyline manage to rival some of the recurring heroes and villains in memorability despite only appearing in a single issue (and not even always in leading roles).
    • The three kids (particularly the one who defends his food with a slingshot) who each scavenge some food dropped from a helicopter in the opening scene of the first omnibus provide an interesting look at how the introduction of that food affects the deprived community. The reasonable trader who barters for an apple with one kid and the thieves who try to rob the other two also add a lot to the scene.
    • The social worker refugee from the first issue who tries to barter for shelter from a gang by saying that he helps people who don't get along communicate. The gang members agree that this sounds like a skill they can use, but in a grim case of Exact Words, make him a Dead Guy on Display.
    • The young trader known only as The Nomad, who faces down a mugger with courage and charm in the second issue while deducing that the man's gun isn't loaded. The mugger counts as well, if only because of how he later makes the mistake of accosting Joker.
    • The man who appears in one Azrael issue and has a Sadistic Choice between feeding his daughter or his father, inspiring both anger and pity from Azrael at different points.
    • William "Sarge" Riley, the Retired Badass protagonist of the standalone issue "Home Sweet Home." He gets some awesome and heartwarming moments as the protector of his neighborhood and manages to get away with defying Joker by impressing the clown with his attitude.
    • The engineer who helps a visiting Superman reopen a power plant, only to end up coerced into helping some thugs sell the utilities.
    • The young girl who's spying on Billy Petit for Oracle and encounters Superman during his second visit to No Man's Land, due to her Little Miss Badass characterization.
    • Sonny Epifani, a fedora-wearing Mafia member who brings a lot of integrity to his new job of rescuing earthquake victims during his brief appearance in Cataclysm.
    • Jared Manx, the death row prisoner who serves as the POV character for a story about a tsunami hitting Blackgate Prison after the earthquake, makes a big enough impression that he has a Reddit thread debating whether he is guilty or innocent.
    • In the Batman Contagion arc that helps set the stage for No Man's Land, Fong (who lets his survival of the eponymous virus inflate his sense of ego) makes the most of his brief page-time. He spends most of his sole issue showing off his muscular chest as he rants about his belief that he has the same powers as Superman, then proceeds to kill himself in a misguided attempt to demonstrate his supposed immortality.
    • Motor Mouth Action Politician Esterbrook Halivan, whose Plot-Triggering Death ends any hope of avoiding No Man's Land.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: A case of this among the writers. In the Nightwing tie-in, Chuck Dixon sowed the seeds for a Nightwing and Oracle relationship, while also making clear the antagonistic relationship between Nightwing and Huntress. In the concluding issues penned by Greg Rucka and Devin Grayson, Nightwing greatly cares about Huntress, and even kisses on New Year's Eve.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • The death of Jim Gordon's wife, Sarah, at the hands of the Joker. Joker has a large number of infants held hostage. Sarah rushes in with a gun, and Joker tosses one of the babies at her, forcing her to drop her gun to save it. No points for guessing what he does once she's unarmed. Gordon gets the news outside - he rants tearfully about how the Joker has gone too far and seriously considers killing him, but after shooting him in the knee, chooses law over anarchy and walks away. And if him weeping on the steps as Batman holds him steady doesn't get to you, then the scene of him spending the New Year alone, singing Auld Lang Syne dry-eyed over Sarah's grave definitely will.
    • To put this event into perspective: Even The Joker realizes that this wasn't funny, even by his standards. On the other hand, Joker found Gordon blowing off one of his kneecaps to be hysterical.
      Joker: He shot my knee! I may never... ...oh... Like your daughter! I GET IT! Good one, Commissioner!
    • In the novelization, Batman's last scene: visiting his parents' grave and the remains of quake-ravaged Wayne Manor: "I'm home."

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